During this blog post, we’re going to talk about some great warm-up drills that will help you and your team have a basketball practice that’s as effective as possible.

These warm-up drills help to get the players loose.

3 Man Weave, 5 Pass

3 Man Weave, 5 Pass Drill

This drill is perfect to do after stretching and having a brief meeting with the players to try to create a mood.

Three players stay together in the drill. They’re going to go down the court and go figure eight, pass, and go behind.

The goal is to throw five passes. As your player is going up the court, he should call the player’s name as he’s passing it to him. And on the last pass, say, “Shot,” and then the next three guys go.

Next, go to four passes. This means that your players have to go a little bit harder the second round.

Next, go to three passes, and finally go to two passes.

We’ve gone from five, four, three, two, and on each one of them we’d go up and down. On the last one, we’re going to pass the ball back and forth to each other–as many passes as we can throw until we get directly under the rim. When we get under the rim, the point guard gets the ball and turns, without dribbling, and pushes the ball up the court.

Chase the Point Guard

Chase the Point Guard Drill

In this particular drill, we want the point guard to get to the basket and score from the baseline, in four dribbles.

On his first dribble, the other two players can start chasing him. If he’s dribbling it right-handed, we’re going to use the left hand and try to knock it away.

By the time he gets to the foul line, if I don’t think I’m going to catch him, I start thinking offense–I want to run in and chase him. If I can’t get him as he’s going to the basket, I want to take it out of the basket, run to the side, plant, and throw the pass deep.

Chase the Point Guard (5 Players)

That’s the 2-on-1. We go one more phase and use five guys.

What they’re going to do is pass it back and forth to each other and go to the basket to score. When they start to come into position, the middle guy’s running the whole time, trying to catch the guys in the middle. If he catches up to the middle guys, then they’re allowed to use the dribble. If they can stay ahead of him, they pass it.

These three drills are ideal for getting your players in the right frame of mind for a successful basketball practice.